Slow and Steady: More Thoughts on Physical and Financial Fitness
Published on - June 30th, 2010 (Modified on - July 22nd, 2010) (by April Dykman) This post is from GRS staff writer April Dykman.
Last week, Robert Brokamp lamented about his not-ready-for-prime-time bikini body, asking GRS readers “whether it might make sense occasionally to engage in some extreme fiscal or physical fitness in order to see bigger results sooner, which could serve as encouragement to keep going.”
Brokamp’s post was highly entertaining to be sure, but I immediately fired off an e-mail to J.D. asking if I could answer his question in a follow-up post. At GRS, we recognize the importance of getting rich slowly, doing the boring stuff day-in and day-out to achieve financial success. I believe weight loss is no different.
Crash diets don’t work
Research published by UCLA in 2007 concluded that diets don’t work. Traci Mann, UCLA associate professor of psychology and lead author of the study, writes:
You can initially lose 5 to 10% of your weight on any number of diets, but then the weight comes back. We found that the majority of people regained all the weight, plus more. Sustained weight loss was found only in a small minority of participants, while complete weight regain was found in the majority. Diets do not lead to sustained weight loss or health benefits for the majority of people.
We really want to believe there’s a magic bullet, but sadly, weight loss is as unsexy as loading up on veggies and getting some exercise everyday.
When I hear people talking about the latest fad diet, it reminds me of the people that talk about what they’d do if they won the lottery — it’s easier to daydream than to hunker down and do the work. That’s why people are quick to defend their 500-calorie-per-day diets and hCG injections or to pass around studies about how get-slim-quick strategies can yield lasting results. But you lose weight on the nutty hCG diet because you are consuming too few calories, and a little digging into the linked study that seems to champion rapid weight loss shows that the term “rapid” is used to describe participants who lost an average of 1.5 pounds per week, which isn’t fast at all. It’s a realistic and healthy goal for the average person to lose 1-2 pounds per week.
With weight loss, as with personal finance, don’t believe the hype. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
Where personal finance and dieting differ
Brokamp wrote, “I tried this once before with my diet, cutting out everything except vegetables and lean proteins. That included no more caffeine or any kind of sugar. After a few days, I didn’t feel so great — kinda like I had the flu.”
Where diet and personal finance differ is that depriving your body directly affects your health. The Weight-control Information Network reports that “many patients on a [very low calorie diet] for 4 to 16 weeks report minor side effects such as fatigue, constipation, nausea, or diarrhea.” While those conditions usually improve, CNN reports some more serious side effects that make some nutritionists dread bikini season. According to the article, studies show that crash diets (under 1,200 calories per day) can lead to the following:
- Slower metabolism (meaning future weight gain)
- Nutrient deprivation
- Weakened immune system
- Dehydration
- Heart palpitations
- Cardiac stress
Maybe doing it just once won’t harm you, but since studies show that crash diets won’t work, chances are that next summer you’ll be looking for another quick fix to lose 20 pounds (or more) again.
Psychological Boost: Fact or Fiction?
Do quick results give you the motivation to stay on course? Or as Brokamp asks, “Wouldn’t I see more results by severely limiting the calories and increasing the exercise, which would inspire me to keep going and stick with it?”
It does make sense. If you look great, you’d be crazy not to maintain that, right? But it’s statistically proven that you’ll regain the weight, and maybe even some extra, so that seems unlikely to be sufficient motivation. And some experts believe that losing and regaining is bad for your psychological health, making you feel like, well, a hopeless failure. Studies on the psychological effects are inconclusive, however, with some linking weight cycling to increased psychological distress and dissatisfaction, and others showing no relationship.
A Life Plan that Works
I’m pretty passionate about weight loss and personal finance. I gained weight during college (on a barely 5’2″ frame) that I finally lost for good five years ago. I was in credit card debt from my freshman year until two years ago. Before that, both the scale and the credit card balance yo-yoed for years. I finally stopped looking for quick fixes, and that’s when I found success. So, my advice to Brokamp is to consider J.D.’s original twelve core beliefs about money (he just keeps making that list bigger, doesn’t he?), with a weight loss twist:
- Maintaining a healthy weight is more about mind than it is about math. The math is simple — calories in, calories burned. But that’s obviously not enough. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a common trait among people who lose weight and keep it off is that they seek support from family members and friends. When your negative thoughts get in the way of your goal, turn to your support group for encouragement.
- Goals are important. Be realistic, and think about process goals. For instance, instead of focusing on losing 20 pounds, make it your goal to eat five servings of vegetables and workout for 45 minutes a day.
- Eat less than you burn. In other words, track what you eat, even if only for a few weeks. You’ll learn about your habits and triggers, which is instrumental for long-term weight maintenance.
- Eat your proteins and veggies first. Before you reach for the bread basket or down 16 ounces of soda, fill up on something nutritious.
- Small amounts matter. If you can’t fit in a two-hour run, don’t get frustrated and give up. Do you have 30 minutes? Consistency is what is important. Likewise, swapping a frappucino for a latte might seem insignificant, until you calculate the calorie difference.
- Large amounts matter, too. It’s just not reasonable to eat a pint of ice cream and expect to make it up at the gym the next day. Learn about portion control.
- Do what works for you. As with personal finance, there is no one answer. I can tell you my secret was eating kale, but maybe you hate kale. You can tell me that running was the key to your success, and just hearing about it will make my knee hurt. There are a lot of healthy foods and calorie-torching activities out there — experiment until you figure out what you like.
- Slow and steady wins the race. To quote J.D. when he wrote about this in a personal finance context, “Recognize that you’re in this for the long haul. You’re making a lifestyle change, not looking for a quick fix.”
- The perfect is the enemy of the good. Don’t bother looking for the “best” weight loss plan — there’s not one. Get started and tweak your plan as you go.
- Failure is okay. Maintaining your weight is something you’ll do for the rest of your life. There will be vacations, birthdays, and holiday seasons that throw you off track. That’s okay. Get back into your good habits, and make a plan to have healthy foods on hand and fit in some exercise the next time your routine changes.
- It’s more important to be happy than it is to be skinny. Don’t become obsessed with celebrities diets and models who walk the Victoria’s Secret runway a week after giving birth. As with money, if you’re happy, your weight can be easier to manage, especially if you eat ice cream when you’re sad or reach for potato chips when you’re bored.
- Do it now. It’s easy to put off weight loss until bikini season hits and you can’t hide under a sweater, but the sooner your start moving toward your goals, the easier they are to reach.
Finally, when it comes to paying off debt, it might make sense to cut back for some big wins. But you probably didn’t get to where you are now right out of the gate.
When my husband and I got serious about debt, he sold his motorcycle, I quit buying clothes for sport, and we started to pack our lunch everyday. That seemed drastic to us, but since then we’ve found many more ways to save, implemented over time. Crash dieting isn’t akin to selling some Stuff and building your online savings account or starting an emergency fund; it’s more like trying to go from compulsive spender to Frugal Babe overnight. Not even Frugal Babe did that!
Sadly, successful weight loss, like good personal finance habits, is quite boring. But the payoffs are huge.
This article is about Basics, Health & Fitness
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Let’s face it. People in the developed world eat way too much. When I go to restaurants, I am constantly amazed at the portions. When I go to people’s homes, I am amazed at how much food they keep in their refrigerators, cabinets etc. People in this part of the world eat too much yet expect to lose weight. Ask yourself: do you need so many snacks in a day plus the standard three meals? People eat a lot due to the abundance of food, something that they were born into. Some people should not eat more than two meals a day because of the level of their natural metabolism. However, they are stuck into eating a fixed number of meals plus snacks, everyday.
I am amazed when nutritionists, governments, experts etc recommend five portions of fruits/vegetables a day. Not all human beings should consume that much. Some people need far less. The problem is most people never listen to their bodies and the weight never goes off.
If what you’re doing is not working regardless of what the ‘nutritionists’ recommend, you need to change and look for alternatives. However, when you go to Hollywood where people know they need to control their weight, the picture is different. It’s not always about access to personal trainers but a decision to ‘say no’ to a lot of food, for most people. It’s painful but it works. You will never achieve your goals if you eat too much. Listen to yoru bosy. No one has to eat all three meals plus snacks and calorie-loaded sweet drinks everyday!!
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J.D. – Sno-Balls: me too!
Cortney – we probably don’t want to open the Box of Hellish Discord that is the Fat Acceptance movement.
Ted (above) is a great example of someone who was basically very fit, but found that metabolically his body was not processing fats and sugars well. He cut fats and sugars and presto, the metabolic disorder is sorted and his extra weight came off. Now he just has to live with the new lifestyle … and probably he will be able to find an equilibrium where he can still have *some* fats and sugars if he chooses to, while maintaining his health.
And since this *is* a PF blog, it’s worth noting (again) that a fit healthy body is muuuuuch less expensive to maintain. The habits required to be healthy physically and financially are the same: gradual changes, dedication, mindfulness, and the occasional big effort.
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KC#22, have you tried weight lifting on a regular basis? As a 55+ woman, I do find that I need to do more cardio and weight lift to be able to maintain and/or lose some weight. I’ve maintained a 100 lb. weight loss since 2006, but watched my weight creep up about 5 lbs. when I quit weight lifting so much (I’d moved and changed gyms–don’t like the new one as much). Diet is 80% of weight loss, but as another poster mentioned, the makeup of those calories needs to change with age and other factors so that it’s not really calories in/calories out.
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Cortney — is there a Debt Acceptance movement? Or is that just “everybody”.
I get that not everyone should look like a stick, which indeed can be just as unhealthy as being overweight — but most(*) people should be able to maintain a reasonable body weight. Just as people should be able to keep track of their finances. It’s really quite a simple process.
* – yes, I know there are medical reasons people are overweight. But they are relatively uncommon. The bottom line is that people overeat (and overspend, too)
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@51 Victoria
… except if you’re hypoglycemic or have problems processing insulin, or any number of other issues that make 5 small meals a day a lot more conducive to weightloss than 2 big meals.
Heck, the studies I’ve read show that having 5 small meals is better for weight loss than 3 large meals in the general population (including Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy’s review of the literature). There are probably other studies saying the opposite but I haven’t come across them.
Yes, listen to your body. My body says snacking is good. And my eyes tell me that a lot of people in Hollywood are skinny but unhealthy.
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I am very committed to both financial well-being and working out/eating right. I see parallels all over the place.
Two things that stand out to me:
1. In both finance and weight loss/fitness, the small choices are the key to making these changes into a lifestyle. A daily frappucino is not only sucking up cash, it’s adding empty calories. Saying “no” to that, or to the bread basket at a restaurant, or that extra helping at dinner…once those small choices become second nature, you’ve crossed over.
2. We all know people in debt who claim that they’re “doing everything they can,” but don’t understand why they can’t dig out. But a closer look would reveal that they are still spending on all kinds of little things, aren’t tracking every penny, etc. Same with diet and exercise. “But I’m going to the gym an hour a day!” Sure, but you’re spending 20 minutes wandering around, 20 minutes pedaling listlessly on a bike while reading a magazine, and 20 minutes in the steam room. People fool themselves and then give up because “nothing works.” It’s not until you become honest with yourself and your actual habits that you can make changes and see results.
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Chiming in late. J.D. said “I just want to be able to eat a Hostess Sno-Ball now and then, you know?” You can. You just have to strictly define “now and then.” In the last 14 months, I’ve lost 72 pounds following the “No-S diet,” invented by a computer programmer/librarian named Reinhard Engel. You can Google it- his site is very helpful, low-tech, and no-sell. The complete plan can be summed up in 14 words. “No snacks, no sweets, no seconds, except (sometimes) on days that start with S.” S-days are Saturdays, Sundays and “special, or social” days like major holidays, close family birthdays, etc.
It’s not really a diet, but a plan for “systematic moderation.” It’s shockingly simple, almost suspiciously so, but it’s the way most cultures have eaten for most of history. I.e. Enjoy real food at socially agreed-upon times and occasions, but don’t overdo it. One in a great while, though, overdo it. It’s OK to stuff yourself on Thankgiving, if you’re eating sensibly 99% of the time.
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@Marc: The only thing in your comment that made me wince was “Enjoy real food at socially agreed-upon times and occasions”
Real food? What are you eating the rest of the time? I would argue that that’s backwards. Enjoy junk at socially agreed-upon times, and eat real food the rest of the time.
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@H Lee D
Sorry, that was confusing. I meant eat real food (things your grandma would recognize as food- not low-fat, reduced-carb whatever) most of the time, at the socially traditional times of breakfast, lunch and dinner. Have one good plateful of satisfying food. Don’t have seconds. Don’t snack in between meals. Don’t have dessert. If you have a medical condition, confirmed by your doctor, follow their advice. Otherwise, just don’t. You won’t starve, and it’s OK to be a little hungry- it’s called having an appetite. I had almost forgotten what that really was. On Saturday evening, have a slice of cheesecake, or a Hostess Sno-Ball, if you want. On Sunday morning, go out for brunch. Reserve gut-busting excess to a handful of times per year- three helpings of turkey and stuffing at Thankgiving, or half-a-dozen mini-Snickers on Halloween.
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I’m going to chime in on the “gotta count your calories” side. While there are always exceptions, in general, the only real way to lose weight is to eat fewer calories than you burn – full stop.
The reason many people say that doesn’t work, is because they don’t actually *do it*. Most people grossly underestimate their caloric intake.
Take breakfast cereal, for example. The average cereal bowl is far larger than the recommended serving size listed on the side of the box (typically 160-200 calories with skim milk). I would routinely fill my bowl not-quite to the top with cereal and milk, and assume it was roughly a serving. Nope – once I actually measured it, turns out it was closer to 3 servings!
Just an example, your mileage may vary, etc.
Please note: I am not discounting possible hormonal issues either – I suffer from low testosterone which makes me more susceptible to weight gain if I don’t supplement with a testosterone replacement. Many women have thyroid issues, etc. If you think this may be an issue for you, go see an endocrinologist. But that is rarely the *primary* reason for lack of weight loss.
Bottom line – if you’re not losing weight, and *not* counting calories, start there before looking at more radical reasons for lack of weightloss success. I recommend http://www.thedailyplate.com/ for calorie tracking.
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@51 Victoria
Doesn’t portion mean a controlled amount of food? Like a portion of pasta is about 1 fistful. Thus, it’s not really overeating.
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Many of you bring up a valid point–as the study showed, diets DO cause initial weight loss. So if your goal is to crash diet and lose some weight–yes, you’ll probably be successful, and later you’ll gain it back.
I should have clarified that fad diets don’t work for *sustained* weight loss, which I likely confused because that was always my personal goal–to lose the weight and keep it off permanently.
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I’ve found the hackers diet to lay it out in a very straight forward way.
http://www.fourmilab.ch/hackdiet/
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This is a great, well-researched article. I love this web site because of how it links healthy financial philosophies with a healthy lifestyle in general.
However:
“Sadly, successful weight loss, like good personal finance habits, is quite boring. But the payoffs are huge.”
I beg to differ! Eating the same unnatural food every day and the resulting misery was boring for me.
As someone who has yo-yo’d 20 pounds over the past 6 years (which, on my 5’1″ frame, is quite substantial), I’ve learned to enjoy the effort it takes to be healthy, just as I’ve learned that I get more enjoyment out of the benefits of saving and investing than I do when I spend more than I earn.
Trying new, healthy recipes as a result of the “strange” vegetables that come in my CSA share, taking an assortment of exercise classes, and discovering new running paths has become my primary source of entertainment.
The secret is perspective.
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I find skipping meals works for me. My theory is that the human body was designed to miss meals or not to eat for long periods. I personally feel better, even though I might feel hungry or even slightly light headed at the skipped meal time. I discovered this approach when working long hours when I didn’t want to stop and eat. I found I made better progress and was mentally more alert by skipping a meal then by stopping and eating and then trying to work. It is also strangely more satisfying to eat when I am *really* hungry.
Not sure it has a financial parallel. I agree that the discipline of saving, investing, budgeting, dieting, exercising are all similar. They are small incremental things we need to do every day, and if we do them right, will make a huge difference in the near future. Once they become a habit – which means paradoxically that using goals can be self defeating – then we have a lifestyle change that pays benefits … for life.
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reading the comments reminded me of another way in which diet/food and money are related.
Most people have a conscious or unconscious number that represents “when I’ll be rich” or “what I need to retire” and also have a number that represents “what I want to weigh.”
But just as some people choose money numbers that I might think are unnecessarily high or, conversely, that would be too low for me to be happy with, some people choose weights that seem impossibly low (“I have to weigh what that starlet weighs to feel good about myself”) or unhealthily high to me (“As long as I can find something to wear, I don’t care how much I weigh”).
But, either way, it is a personal choice.
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Cortney- I loooove Kate Harding and Shapely Prose, and I feel like one idea that the FA movement embraces that I absolutely agree with is that the BMI ratings are just a load of crap. Like, there’s this thought, especially in discussions like this that involve personal finance (which is much, much simpler) that everyone SHOULD be able to maintain a healthy weight and it’s all just a numbers game. But what’s a healthy weight? Does it matter what goes into your body as long as calories in are less than calories out? And is dropping pounds necessarily the best way to be healthy?
I think there’s much more of a stigma to being fat than there is to being in debt. And one can be fat and healthy, and be fat and make “good” choices. With each though is this notion that there’s always more you could be doing. If you’re poor but good with money, why can’t you boost your income? Why can’t you live without that car, that pet, that can of soda? It never ends, and it’s up to each of us to decide where to draw the line. With weight, especially for women, there’s so much pressure from absolutely everyone to be thin, to do more to get thin. If you’re fat, it’s a personal failing. If you’re fat and eat well, there must be something wrong with you. If you’re fat and eat poorly, you’re reckless and deserve what you get. We can all say “do what works for you” and pretend like we’re not all judging each other, but people who really see life that way are sadly, in my experience, in the minority.
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Personally I love kale! Sadly for me, I also love a lot of food that’s high in fat
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@J.D.- Sorry! Wasn’t trying to open Hellish Discord
Just wondering if anyone had heard of the movement. I’m on the fence with how I feel about it. I like some things, totally disagree with others. As it should be I suppose 
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I don’t think the purpose of any diet is to lose weight then gain it all back. So in that sense, diets don’t work unless you adopt them as a lifestyle. Most diets are impossible to adopt as a lifestyle because they are too restrictive to be healthy long term.
Things that work and are relatively sustainable? Stop drinking soda, stop eating white carbs (white sugar, white flour, white rice), and get daily excersize. Obviously once in while you’ll have to have that coke or eat a muffin, but just keep it from being a regular occurance. This is a lifestyle change that has worked wonderfully for me.
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Most diets do not work because they are so extreme. People that are worried about weight should concern themselves more with eating healthy, not depriving themselves.
The same goes for personal finance. You need to develop “healthy” habits in relation to your finances that will put you in a better position for the future. Those habits could be any number of things but it only takes one habit to get started. Getting out of debt would be the first on my list.
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Kale is my answer, too. We all know that eating “healthy” + moving more = weight loss. I think most folks are still very confused about what “healthy” eating looks like. I thought I knew what healthy was, then I read Joel Fuhrman’s *Eat to Live* and *Eat for Health* books. If you want to lose weight, sleep better, feel better, look better, or if you suffer from a chronic illness, these books are a must read.
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April/J.D. — This is a great topic. I’m researching a freelance story on this right now and this article has helped stir up some good ideas. Great article!
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